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1778. to me. I hope to fee you before long-I most ardently with it and I pledge myself to you and my country, that I can and will juftify my character of a patriot in all points to your fatisfaction." This difagreeable relation will finish with a paragraph from gen. Washington's letter of March the 28th." My caution to avoid every thing that could.injure the fervice, prevented me from communicating, but to a very few of my friends, the intrigues of a faction, which I know was formed against me, fince it might ferve to publish our internal diffenfions; but their own restlefs zeal to advance their views has too clearly betrayed them, and made concealment on my part fruitlefs."

Let us pafs on to another event, which has the appearance of being related to fome plot. On Monday, January the 12th, the prefident laid before congrefs a packet containing blank papers, which he received the day before from capt. John Folger, who was fent by the commiffioners at Paris with difpatches to congrefs. Mr. Folger was ordered to be confined in close prifon; but in the beginning of May, the committee, who were appointed to examine into his conduct reported, "That they have made as full an examination into that business as the evidence they were able to obtain would permit, and on the whole have no proof of any guilt in Mr. Folger;" whereupon the captain has been permitted to go home, and has had all his expences paid him. The committee fufpect there has been foul play fomewhere, They have taken off the feal from the packet, and sent it back to Paris, to be examined by the original impreffion, that they may fee if the fraud can be detected by that mean. What makes the affair more mysterious

is, that the other difpatches brought by the captain, con- 1778. tained state papers directed for the late prefident Mr. Hancock, and had no appearance of having been fearched. Time muft produce an explanation of this dark bufinefs; which has been rendered the more fufpicious by the arrival of Mr. Francey with a letter from Mr. Deane only, dated Paris, September the 10th, 1777, recommending him as Mr. Beaumarchais' agent, and preffing the execution of the bufinefs which he came upon. The committee for foreign affairs, in their first letter to the commiffioners after his arrival, faid, "We think it ftrange that the commiflioners did not jointly write by Mr. Francey, confidering the very important defigns of his coming over, viz. to fettle the mode of payment for the paft cargoes, fent by Roderique Hortales and Co. [alias Mr. Beaumarchais] and to make contracts for future. It is certain, that much eclairciffement is, at this late moment, wanting." Mr. Francey from time to time fent to the committee of commerce, letters upon the bufinefs with which he was intrufted, which were reported to congrefs for their confideration. After being before them once and again, Mr. Francey, as agent for Roderique Hortales and company, fettled his contract with them, on the 8th of April. By that' contract it was ftipulated among other articles, that the cofts of the feveral cargoes already fhipped by the faid company, were to be fairly ftated at the current prices. and ufual mercantile charges in France, of the dates at which they were shipped.

Let us for a while employ ourfelves about military

concerns.

1778.

The condition of the army at Valley-forge, was far Jan. from being the moft eligible or refpectable; and in cafe 3. the enemy had come out of Philadelphia, and made a

Feb.

16.

general pufh, would have been exceeding hazardous.
Gen. Washington was compelled by neceffity to employ
the troops
in making seizures; which excited the greatest
uneafinefs imaginable among their beft and warmest
friends, beside spreading difaffection among the people.
He ever regrets being forced upon fuch a measure, and
confiders it among his worst misfortunes; as it not only
occafions a dreadful alarm, but never fails, even in vẹ-
teran armies, under the most rigid and exact discipline;
to raise in the foldiery a difpofition to licentiousness,
plunder, and robbery. The relief obtained was of no
long continuance.

He thus defcribed the diftreffes of the army on the 16th of February-" For fome days past there has been little lefs than a famine in camp. Naked and ftarving as they are, we cannot enough admire the incomparable patience and fidelity of the foldiery, that they have not, ere this, been excited by their fufferings to a general mutiny and difperfion. This is the second time in the present year, that we have been upon the verge of a diffolution for want of provifion." As to clothing, "he was continually tantalized with accounts from all quarters, of the prodigious quantity that was purchased and forwarded for the use of the army, while none reached them, or fo badly forted as to be totally useless. The poor foldier had a pair of ftockings given him without fhoes, or a waistcoat without a coat or blanket to his back; and thus he derived little benefit from what he received. Perhaps by Midfummer he may receive thick

ftockings, fhoes, and blankets, which he will contrive 1778. to get rid of in the most expeditious manner. In this way, by an eternal round of the most stupid management, the public treafure is expended to no kind of purpose, while the men have been left to perish by inches with cold and nakedness."

Upon a full conviction that the falvation of the cause depended on making provifion for the half pay of the officers, the general communicated his thoughts to fome of the congrefs in the following words-" With far the greatest part of mankind, intereft is the governing principle. Almost every man is more or less under its influence. Motives of public virtue may, for a time, or in particular instances, actuate men to the observance of a conduct purely difinterested; but they are not of themselves fufficient to produce a perfevering conformity, to the refined dictates and obligations of focial duty. We find it exemplified in the American officers as well as in all other men. At the commencement of the dispute, in the firft effufions of their zeal, and looking upon that fervice to be only temporary, they entered into it without paying any regard to pecuniary or felfifh confiderations: but finding its duration to be much longer than they at first suspected, and that instead of deriving any advantage from the hardships and dangers to which they were expofed, they on the contrary were lofers by their patriotism, and fell far fhort of a competency to fupply their wants, they have gradually abated in their ardor; and with many an entire difinclination to the fervice under its prefent circumstances has taken place. When an officer's commiffion is valuable to him, and he fears to lofe it, you may then exact obedience from him. It is

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1778. not indeed confiftent with reafon or justice, to expect that one set of men fhould make a facrifice of property, domestic ease and happiness, and encounter the rigors of the field, the perils and viciffitudes of war, to obtain thofe bleffings which every citizen will enjoy in common with them, without fome adequate compenfation. It must also be a comfortless reflection to any man, that after he may have contributed to fecuring the rights of his country, by the rifk of his life and the ruin of his fortune, there will be no provifion made for preventing himself and family from finking into indigence and wretchedness. Nothing would ferve more fully to reanimate their languishing zeal, and intereft them thoroughly in the fervice, than a half pay and pensionary establishment." The general fupported his interpofition April in behalf of the officers, by a fecond letter of April the 21. 21ft-" Men may fpeculate as they will; they may talk of patriotism; they may draw a few examples from ancient story of great atchievements performed by its influence, but whoever builds upon it, as a fufficient bafis for conducting a long and bloody war, will find themselves deceived in the end. We must take the paffions of men as nature has given them, and those principles as a guide which are generally the rule of action. I do not mean to exclude altogether the idea of patriotifm. I know it exifts, and I know it has done much in the prefent conteft: but I will venture to affert, that a great and lasting war can never be fupported on this principle alone. It must be aided by a prospect of intereft or fome reward. For a time it may of itself pufh men to action, to bear much, to encounter difficulties, but it will not endure unaffifted by intereft.-Without

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